Memory may decline rapidly even in stage before Alzheimer's disease

Memory and thinking skills may decline rapidly for people who have mild cognitive impairment, which is the stage before Alzheimer's disease when people have mild memory problems but no dementia symptoms, and even more rapidly when dementia begins, which is when Alzheimer's disease is usually diagnosed.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

Proof in humans of RNA interference using targeted nanoparticles

A team of researchers and clinicians has published the first proof that a targeted nanoparticle -- used as an experimental therapeutic and injected directly into a patient's bloodstream -- can traffic into tumors, deliver double-stranded small interfering RNAs, and turn off an important cancer gene using a mechanism known as RNA interference. Moreover, the team provided the first demonstration that this new type of therapy can make its way to human tumors in a dose-dependent fashion.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

Genes keep watch on blood clotting time

Scientists have discovered three genes that could shed light on the genetic causes of blood-clotting disorders such as thrombosis and some types of stroke.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

Controlling HIV: Highly promising new compound developed

A compound that can inhibit the transfer of HIV from one cell to another has been developed by researchers in France. It acts by saturating a receptor called DC-SIGN, which is used by HIV to ensure its transmission throughout the body.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

Bird bones may be hollow, but they are also heavy

For centuries biologists have known that bird bones are hollow, and even elementary school children know that bird skeletons are lightweight to offset the high energy cost of flying. Nevertheless, many people are surprised to learn that bird skeletons do not actually weigh any less than the skeletons of similarly sized mammals. In other words, the skeleton of a two-ounce songbird weighs just as much as the skeleton of a two-ounce rodent.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

Nanowire advances promise improved light-emitting diodes and solar-energy generation

Researchers are making improvements to semiconductor alloys that will help overcome some of the technical roadblocks to producing more effective photovoltaic cells for generating solar energy and will enable light-emitting diodes to provide more versatile and efficient lighting.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

Exploring the link between sunlight and multiple sclerosis

For more than 30 years, scientists have known that multiple sclerosis is much more common in higher latitudes than in the tropics. Because sunlight is more abundant near the equator, many researchers have wondered if the high levels of vitamin D engendered by sunlight could explain this unusual pattern of prevalence.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

Mysterious stone spheres in Costa Rica investigated

Researchers are investigating the origin of the giant stone balls in Costa Rica that inspired the opening scenes of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

Hypoglycemia linked to mortality rates in critically ill

Researchers report that they have found a link between mild to moderate hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and mortality in critically ill patients.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

Growing by Biblical portions: Last Supper paintings over Millennium depict growing appetites

The sizes of the portions and plates in more than four dozen depictions of the Last Supper -- painted over the past 1,000 years -- have gradually grown bigger and bigger, according to a new study.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm

Whitetip shark left exposed at UN trade meet (AFP)

AFP - The UN wildlife trade body has shot down a proposal to regulate global commerce in the oceanic whitetip shark -- a species highly prized by gourmets for its fins.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:48 am

Hammerhead sharks lose fight at UN meeting (AP)

AP - A U.S.-backed proposal to protect the heavily fished hammerhead sharks was narrowly rejected Tuesday over concerns by Asia nations that regulating the booming trade in shark fins could hurt poor nations.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 3:04 am

Cairn Energy profit slumps (AFP)

AFP - Cairn Energy, which recently began pumping oil in India, said Tuesday that its net profit slumped 93 percent to 16.5 million pounds (24.7 million dollars) in 2009.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 2:30 am

Indraprastha Gas to up CNG prices by 1.1 rupees/kg (Reuters)

Reuters - Indraparastha Gas Ltd, which supplies gas in Delhi and surrounding region, aims to raise retail prices of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) by about 1.10 rupees per kg from April 1, a senior official said.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 1:45 am

After health, Obama allies zero in on climate (AFP)

AFP - After a hard-fought victory on health care reform, President Barack Obama's allies in Congress are pledging to move forward on climate change -- but some environmentalists remain skeptical.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 23 Mar 2010 | 1:18 am

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Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:39 am

Portion Sizes in 'Last Supper' Paintings Grew Over Time

Analysis shows portion sizes increased over time in paintings of the Last Supper.
Source: Livescience.com | 23 Mar 2010 | 12:02 am

Portion Sizes in 'Last Supper' Paintings Grew Over Time (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - Nutrition experts have analyzed the food depicted in some of the best-known paintings of the biblical Last Supper and found that the portion and plate sizes depicted in them increased substantially from older paintings to those painted more recently.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Mar 2010 | 11:10 pm

Dinosaur rise linked to volcanism

Massive volcanic activity may have helped dinosaurs rise to prominence more than 200 million years ago, a study argues.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Mar 2010 | 11:05 pm

Desert Dust Storm Roars Through China, Blankets Korea

A massive dust storm has pushed through China and is ruining Korea's day. The storm has its roots in a mixture of natural and man-made causes, and could be stopped if China adopts better land use practices.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Mar 2010 | 7:58 pm

Solid Find: Natalee Holloway's Body … Or a Rock

The body of missing woman Natalee Holloway is said found in Caribbean.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 6:42 pm

Hotel owner pleads guilty to polluting NJ river (AP)

AP - The owner of a northern New Jersey hotel has admitted discharging wastewater contaminated with sewage into a river.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Mar 2010 | 5:58 pm

Britain to establish space agency

The UK is formally launching its new executive space agency, to put space policy in the hands of one co-ordinating authority.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Mar 2010 | 5:52 pm

Safety oversight trimmed at US energy labs

Lab directors welcome efforts to tackle red tape, but others worry about lax nuclear security.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/KI9t6wjxG3Q" height="1" width="1"/>
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 22 Mar 2010 | 5:45 pm

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Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Mar 2010 | 5:30 pm

Worries over electronic waste from the developing world

Millions of computers heading for unregulated recyclers could poison water and soil.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 22 Mar 2010 | 5:22 pm

Court refuses 2nd Asian carp injunction request (AP)

AP - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to order the emergency closure of Chicago-area shipping locks to prevent voracious Asian carp from slipping into the Great Lakes, leaving disappointed environmentalists and state officials vowing to continue their fight.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Mar 2010 | 5:20 pm

Behind the Scenes at the Largest U.S. Atom Smasher

Take a visual tour of the biggest atom smasher in the U.S.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 5:17 pm

Bizarre models for human diseases

Plants shed light on disfigured faces, and yeast and blood vessels find common ground.
Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 22 Mar 2010 | 5:00 pm

Virgin Galactic spaceship makes first test flight

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A suborbital spaceship owned by aspiring space tourism operator Virgin Galactic was airlifted into the skies over California's Mojave Desert on Monday for its debut test flight.
Source: Reuters: Science News | 22 Mar 2010 | 4:51 pm

Virgin Galactic Flies Passenger Spaceship and Mothership for First Time (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - The future of public space travel spread its wings for the first time Monday at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California as Virgin Galactic's inaugural SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceship took to the skies attached to its enormous mothership.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Mar 2010 | 4:15 pm

Why Do Humans Dance?

We're born to dance.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 4:11 pm

Private Spaceship Takes to Skies for First Test Flight

A small spaceship carrying the hopes of generation weaned on Star Trek took to the skies on Monday for the first time in a test flight over California's Mojave Desert.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Mar 2010 | 3:55 pm

How Dinosaurs Came to Rule the Earth

Massive volcanic eruptions more than 200 million years ago likely gave dinosaurs the bump they needed to thrive.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 3:33 pm

Google Stops Censoring Search Results in China

Google has shut down Google.cn, the culmination of a two-month battle between the Internet search giant and the People's Republic.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Mar 2010 | 3:25 pm

The British economy resembles a giant panda | Aditya Chakrabortty

The giant panda's problem is it went down an evolutionary cul-de-sac, then found it too late to reverse. It's the same with the British economy

When you watch Alistair Darling's Budget tomorrow, don't think about the growth forecasts and tax rises, and don't – unless you enjoy feeling anxious – spend too long pondering the size of the public debt. No, consider for a moment how the British economy resembles a giant panda.

Granted, the similarities aren't immediately striking. Giant pandas have deformed bones they pass off as opposable thumbs, subsist on un-nutritious bamboo, and are so undersexed that those in captivity are shown panda porn to encourage mating (examples can be found online, but we both know that's not why your office pays for broadband). The British economy boasts none of these attributes – and yet, as the Financial Times's trade editor Alan Beattie points out in his book False Economy, the panda is an example of a phenomenon that economists know very well, and which helps account for the mess the UK is currently in: "path dependency".

This is the notion that chance decisions made way back can lock a person, industry or entire country into an inefficient course they would never subsequently have chosen. Or, as Beattie rather cruelly puts it: "The giant panda's problem is that it went down an evolutionary cul-de-sac and has now found it too late to reverse."

What economies call path dependency is entirely man-made. Take the keyboard I am using to write this. The QWERTY layout was not designed to make typing faster – precisely the opposite. As Paul David, the godfather of path-dependency theory, points out, the keys on mid-19th-century versions of the typewriter would jam if struck too fast – so the most frequently used letters were spaced apart to slow down typists. The mechanics at Remington then promoted the letter R to the top, and thus, assembled on one row, were all the keys needed by any salesman hoping to woo customers by quickly pecking out the brand name: TYPE WRITER.

Even after the mechanical problems were sorted out, the QWERTY keyboard still became the standard among manufacturers and customers. A bunch of chance factors thus combined to make an uncomfortable and inefficient keyboard the industry norm.

And that, in a nutshell, is how path dependency works. Other economists have argued that Betamax was a technical superior format to VHS – it's just that video stores stocked more of the latter, so customers bought VHS recorders. The theory applies to geography too: when William Hewlett and David Packard came out of Stanford University in the Great Depression, they decided to set up shop nearby in what was then called Santa Clara County. Easy access to engineering graduates, and to supplies, drew in more and more technology entrepreneurs so that, by the mid-70s, Santa Clara had become better known as Silicon Valley.

All of which brings us back to this week's Budget. Because while the arguments around what the chancellor should do tomorrow have focused on spending cuts – when to make them, how big they should be – it's clear that what any government really has to do, in successive budgets, is sort out the UK's own path-dependency situation: the economy's dominance by the City of London.

During this decade's long boom, Cityphilia didn't look like much of a problem – at least, not to those sat in Whitehall. After all, financial services contributed well over a quarter of all corporation tax and, in the final bubbletastic months before the credit crunch, accounted for nearly 50% of the quarterly growth in national income. As chancellor, Gordon Brown would regularly tell the banks they had made Britain "a new world leader". Which is precisely why the policy-makers didn't want to ask too many questions about what investment bankers were up to.

Brown is not a natural Cityphile, and there was no conspiracy to elevate the City above all other industries (path dependency doesn't work like that). But the effect was the same: manufacturers like a weak pound as it makes their goods cheaper abroad, while the City prefers a strong pound that holds down inflation. The bankers' argument came to look like economic good sense, with the result that more than a million manufacturing jobs were lost in the decade after Tony Blair took power.

Only now, in the wake of the biggest banking crisis since 1929, does it seem that this economic policy has led the UK down a panda-like cul-de-sac. Academics at the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change at Manchester University recently totted up what more than a decade of betting everything on the banking sector, while allowing other industries to be hollowed out, had yielded. They found that London and the south-east had over 40% of all jobs in Britain's world-beating finance industry; the north-east and Wales had less than 6% of all finance jobs between them. Did these hollowed-out industrial regions have much in the way of other new, private-sector jobs? No: they are now largely reliant on the state to provide new employment.

Economies aren't like pandas, of course: they can change path. But it takes a long time and a lot of effort. Alistair Darling can't do any more tomorrow than push the UK a little bit in the right direction – say, by announcing a new green investment bank to help fund companies and jobs outside the City and north of the Watford Gap. The real test of his Budget, however, will be whether he even tries.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 22 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm

Dinosaurs Rode Volcanic Armageddon to Victory

Geologists have turned a series of 200 million-year-old lake-bed sediments into an epic narrative of the dinosaurs’ journey from ecological obscurity to Earthly supremacy, a mystery that has lingered even as their disappearance is explained.

The dino path to dominance appears to have been cleared when the supercontinent Pangea cracked, setting off 600,000 years of volcanic activity that wiped out the dinosaurs’ crocodilian competitors.

“This is the strongest case for a volcanic cause of a mass extinction event to date,” wrote geoscientists in a paper published March 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

From 250 million to 200 million years ago, dinosaurs were just upstart lizards. The planet was dominated by a family of vaguely crocodile-like animals called crurotarsans that filled every major ecological niche, from slow-munching herbivores to fleet predators.

About halfway through that period, known as the Triassic, an asteroid struck Earth. Many of the planet’s species went extinct, but the crurotarsans weathered the storm. Then, 25 million years after that, in what’s known as the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event, the crurotarsans and at least half of all other animal species vanished. Exactly why isn’t known, but scientists now have a pretty good idea.

Geological records show that Pangea, the giant land mass that once contained the seven modern continents, broke up about 200 million years ago. The North American plate and the African plate drifted apart, leaving a fissured basin that eventually became the Atlantic Ocean. Magma spurted through the cracks, forming a 3.5 million-square-mile lake of lava called the Central Atlantic magmatic province (marked in pink on the map below).

In a paper published in 2007, Brown University geologist Jessica Whitesides, co-author of the new study, showed that the Atlantic basin stayed volcanic for 610,000 years, plenty long enough to shroud the planet in greenhouse gases. The new study backs up that explanation.

The researchers analyzed sediment layers at sites in New Jersey, Connecticut and England, where lakes had been swallowed by lava at different times after the break up of Pangea. The sediments contained fossil pollen. Each grain had a telltale carbon atom signature, allowing them to put the samples in chronological order. Pollen records were then cross-referenced with footprints left in the lake beds by dinosaurs and crurotarsans.

A clear picture emerged. As the volcanism continued, floral species vanished. By the end of the volcanic period, half were gone. So were almost all crurotarsans. As their footprints vanished, those of the dinosaurs grew larger and more frequent. They were taking over.

For the next 135 million years, the great lizards ruled Earth. Then an asteroid struck the Yucatan Peninsula. Just as the crurotarsans had given way to the dinosaurs, the dinosaurs gave way to the latest upstart animal: a class of hairy, warm-blooded creatures called mammals.

Images: 1) Clockwise from left, three crurotarsans: Saurosuchus galilei, Pedeticosaurus leviseuri and Dakosaurus maximus/Wikipedia. 2) Map of Pangea as it appeared 201 million years ago; the red field is the Central Atlantic magmatic province, and red dots indicate sites discussed in the paper/PNAS.

See Also:

• Scientists Can’t Explain Why Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
• 67 Million-Year-Old Snake Fossil Found Eating Baby Dinosaurs
• Fossil Catches Dinosaur Red-Handed, Evolving Into Bird
• Massive Volcanic Eruptions Could Have Killed Off the Dinosaurs
• Latest Extinction is the Greatest

Citation: “Compound-specific carbon isotopes from Earth’s largest flood basalt province directly link eruptions to the end-Triassic mass extinction,” by Jessica Whiteside, Paul Olsen, Timothy I. Eglinton, Michael Brookfield, and Raymond Sambrotto. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Online Early Edition, March 22, 2010.

Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on a book about ecological tipping points.

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Mar 2010 | 2:23 pm

Discovery News Daily Launches

In case you haven't heard already, Discovery News now has a daily newsletter, called Discovery News Daily. What this means is you can get Discovery News delivered right to your inbox. So now, you can check out Discovery News content ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Mar 2010 | 2:15 pm

How much Have We Evolved in the Last 200 Million Years?

Epic battles for survival between animals of Earth's ancient past are strikingly similar to what humans today call "entertainment."
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Mar 2010 | 2:10 pm

Clean Water Is the New Green Collar Job

The next sustainability revolution is clear--safe drinking water with the help of sustainable, affordable technology. But we've got some work to do. Today is World Water Day, a UN initiative that reminds me of International Women's Day in the sense ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Mar 2010 | 1:53 pm

How Dinos Ruled the World

A massive volcanic eruption tipped the scales in the battle between dinosaurs and crocodiles for global dominance.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Mar 2010 | 1:25 pm

Chair announced for climate probe

A chairman has been appointed for a review into science published by the unit at the centre of the "Climategate" row.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Mar 2010 | 1:04 pm

Volcanoes helped dinosaurs rule the Earth, say scientists

Massive eruptions triggered by separation of tectonic plates killed off dominant crurotarsans, fossil evidence shows

Volcanoes that spewed out lava and noxious gases for more than half a million years paved the way for dinosaurs to rule the Earth by wiping out their competitors, scientists say.

The environmental devastation wrought by relentless volcanic activity at the end of the Triassic period 200m years ago laid waste to animal species that lived alongside the early dinosaurs, giving them the upper hand in the Jurassic period that followed.

Before the rise of the dinosaurs, the animal world was dominated by crurotarsans, ancient relatives of modern crocodiles. But as their populations crashed, early therapods, the group of dinosaurs that includes all meat-eating species from Velociraptor to Tyrannosaurus rex, gained ground and thrived.

More than 200m years ago, most of the land on Earth was locked up in the Pangea supercontinent, but this broke apart when the North American and African tectonic plates parted. The separation of the plates created a basin that became the Atlantic ocean and opened up fissures in the Earth's crust, triggering volcanic eruptions that lasted for 600,000 years.

The surge in volcanic activity coincided with one of Earth's big extinction events that is believed to have wiped out half of all species, including most of the large amphibians and around one-fifth of marine organisms.

Scientists reconstructed events surrounding the rise of the dinosaurs by examining evidence from fossilised animals and plants that lived and died in the volcanic onslaught.

A team led by Jessica Whiteside, a paleobiologist at Brown University, Rhode Island, focused on a massive lava flow known as the central Atlantic magmatic province, which covered more than 9m sq km. Regions of the ancient lava field, which flowed from volcanoes 201.4m years ago, are preserved in sediments in Newark and Hartford, in the north-eastern US.

Analysis of wood and ancient leaves recovered from the sediments suggests that atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases soared as volcanic activity increased. The effect on the environment was extraordinary. Ancient pollen residues revealed a mass extinction of plant life in which half of all flora species died out. This was followed by a rise in the growth of ferns, which are often the first plants to return in an environment ravaged by volcanic activity. Ferns can grow in dim lighting conditions, which can be caused when particles churned out by volcanoes block out natural light.

Animal fossils uncovered at the sites revealed a sharp fall in the population of crurotarsans, while theropod footprints became larger and more common as the dinosaurs grew in number and size. After the lava flows "the fossil record for crurotarsans is nearly completely gone", Whiteside said.

Why the early dinosaurs survived while the crurotarsans perished is not known, said Whiteside. "They had the blind luck of being unwittingly adapted to get through that climate catastrophe," she added. A report on the research appears in the US journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The big thing is many people have heard why dinosaurs went extinct, but the question why they came to be is much more interesting," Whiteside said.

Scientists had speculated that dinosaurs rose to prominence when an asteroid struck Earth and wiped out other species. Writing in the journal, Whiteside said the latest research was the "strongest case for a volcanic cause of a mass extinction to date".

Earth's five mass extinctions

The Cretaceous period ended 65m years ago with the death of the dinosaurs. Many scientists believe the Earth suffered a direct hit from an asteroid or that a comet could be to blame for the extinction.

The Triassic period ended 210m years ago with another mass extinction of land animals and sea creatures. A surge of volcanic activity released huge volumes of greenhouse gases and caused massive floods of lava.

At the end of the Permian period 250m years ago, between 80% and 96% of all living marine species were extinguished, along with 70% of land animals. The cause is unclear.

Near the end of the Devonian period, 370m years ago, many species of fish and 70% of marine invertebrates perished. The reason is unclear.

At the end of the Ordovician period, 440m years ago, a mass extinction event wiped out almost all corals and fish, and 25% of all families of creatures. The formation and subsequent melting of glaciers, which caused sea levels to fall and then rise, was the most probable cause.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 22 Mar 2010 | 1:04 pm

EU ministers vow to act against Iranian media censorship (AFP)

AFP - EU foreign ministers on Monday vowed to "act" against the Iranian state's unacceptable jamming of satellite broadcasts and Internet controls, showing the bloc's increasing impatience with Tehran.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 22 Mar 2010 | 12:33 pm

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Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Mar 2010 | 12:32 pm

'Cosmonauts' ready for Mars test

Four Europeans agree to be locked away in steel containers for 18 months to simulate a mission to Mars.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Mar 2010 | 11:58 am

How Did Iceland Form?

The same volcanic processes that shape and shake Iceland today created it millions of years ago.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 11:13 am

'Smart' Roof Responds to Temperature, Saves Energy

A new material made from cooking oil could change your roof into a chameleon of sorts. Instead of changing the color of its skin, the roof coating morphs its optical properties – reflecting the sun’s rays on hot days and absorbing the rays when it’s cold.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:51 am

Why Dark Coffee Is Easier on Your Stomach

SAN FRANCISCO — Roasting coffee beans doesn’t just impart bold, rich flavor. It also creates a compound that helps dial down production of stomach acid, according to research presented on March 21 at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society. The discovery may explain why dark-roasted brews are gentler on the stomach than their lighter peers, and could lead to a new generation of tummy-friendly coffees.

Even though several studies have found a cup-a-day habit imparts health benefits such as decreased risk of obesity, Alzheimer’s and colon cancer, many coffee lovers drink decaf or forgo the beverage altogether because it irritates the stomach or spurs heartburn. Previous work suggested that coffee made from steam-treated beans tamps down this gastric distress, a finding attributed to lower levels of caffeine and other compounds in these brews.

“But there is no experimental or human data that says these compounds increase gastric acid,” said Veronika Somoza of the University of Vienna, who presented the research.

To explore the science behind these gentler brews, Somoza and her colleagues used water and three other solvents to extract compounds from regular commercial coffee blends. Each solvent extracted a different profile of compounds, including caffeine and N-methylpyridinium, a ringed compound that doesn’t appear in green coffee beans but is created in the roasting process. Stomach cells exposed to each suite of compounds upped their acid secretion, except for the cells exposed to the extract containing NMP.

The team then compared the chemical profiles of a dark-roasted and light-roasted brew made with regular roasted and steam-treated beans. Both versions of the dark-roasted coffee had more than 30 milligrams per liter of NMP, as compared with the lighter roast, which had 22 mg/l. The light roast that was subjected to steam treatment, a technique thought to weaken coffee’s stomach-provoking powers, had a mere 5 mg/l of NMP.

Follow-up work confirmed the molecule’s mild-mannered nature. Human stomach cells treated with coffee that had medium or high concentrations of NMP secreted far less acid than cells treated with coffee containing the least amount of NMP, Somoza reported. And the activity of many of the genes and proteins involved in this gastric secretion were quashed in cells exposed to NMP-rich coffee.

The research team is now conducting a pilot study in which subjects swallow a sensor embedded in a capsule that measures the stomach’s pH and transmits the readings to a computer. Preliminary results suggest that stomach acid surges for a longer time when subjects drink light-roast coffee compared to dark-roast.

“Most people think that non-processed food is beneficial, that possibly raw foods are best, but we do not believe that,” Somoza said. “There are healthy, beneficial compounds in processed food. Our idea is to identify these beneficial compounds and enhance them.”

How NMP acts on the gastric system isn’t well understood. Acid secretion didn’t change noticeably in stomach cells treated with NMP alone. And caffeine’s name hasn’t been cleared — the friendlier darker brews also had less caffeine than their lighter-brewed counterparts.

This lower caffeine may also contribute to the darker roasts’ antacid powers. While chemists are fond of breaking bigger things into their smaller parts, these parts often work in concert, said Bhimu Patil of Texas A&M University in College Station. “It’s important to break things down to understand them, but most of the time, there is a synergistic effect.”

Image: eclectic echoes/flickr

See Also:

• Dark Liquor Makes For Worse Hangovers
• Top 5 Recreational Drug Experiments
• High Times in Ag Science: Marijuana More Potent Than Ever

Source: Wired: Wired Science | 22 Mar 2010 | 10:50 am

Declining Organ Donations Causes Widening Need Gap

The number of living organ donors has declined in recent years, a new study says.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 9:54 am

Ivory bids fall on poaching fears

A UN wildlife trade meeting rejects proposals for further sales of ivory, amid concern on poaching controls.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Mar 2010 | 9:34 am

Quantum tech boosts phone cams

Tiny semiconductor "quantum dot" particles could be used in mobile phone cameras that outperform larger approaches.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Mar 2010 | 9:11 am

How to Treat Low-back Pain

There are a good number of non-surgical treatments for chronic back pain.
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 8:58 am

Obesity May Protect Against Repeat Heart Problems

Once someone had had a heart attack, being obese seems to provide protection against further heath problems
Source: Livescience.com | 22 Mar 2010 | 8:12 am

Lord Oxburgh to head new UEA inquiry

Former chair of the science and technology select committee will lead a panel to reassess the scientific papers produced by the Climatic Research Unit

The University of East Anglia has asked Lord Oxburgh, former chair of the House of Lords science and technology select committee, to head a new inquiry into the results produced by the climate scientists at the centre of a media storm.

Oxburgh will lead a panel of scientists that will reassess the scientific papers produced by experts at the university's Climatic Research Unit (CRU). The work of the CRU has been subject to intense scrutiny since thousands of emails from its scientists were released online in November.

Oxburgh said: "The shadow hanging over climate change and science more generally at present makes it a matter of urgency that we get on with this assessment. We will undertake this work and report as soon as possible."

The university has already set up a separate inquiry into the way the CRU scientists behaved, led by Sir Muir Russell. The new investigation will look at the results they published in scientific journals.

Trevor Davies, pro-vice chancellor for research at the university, said: "CRU's scientific papers have been examined by scientists from other institutions through the peer review system before being accepted for publication by international journals. We have no reason to question the effectiveness of this process. Nevertheless, given the concerns about climate research expressed by some in the media, we decided to augment the Muir Russell review with an independent assessment of CRU's key publications in the areas which have been most subject to comment."

The members of the panel are: Prof Huw Davies at ETH Zurich, Prof Kerry Emanual at MIT, Prof Lisa Graumlich of the University of Arizona, Prof David Hand of Imperial College London, and Prof Herbert Huppert and Prof Michael Kelly at the University of Cambridge.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 22 Mar 2010 | 7:25 am

Amateur UK astronomer nets 'cosmic discovery' from Hawaii

An amateur astronomer has made a "major astronomical discovery" while accessing a telescope in Hawaii over the internet while at work in the UK.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Mar 2010 | 7:18 am

Bang Goes the Theory: a science lesson the family can enjoy

Can you create a science programme suitable for family viewing that is exciting and inspirational? Bang Goes the Theory has a pretty good stab at it

The gang of four returned last week. If you haven't yet seen Bang Goes the Theory you'll be in need of an introduction. Jem is the leader. He has been genetically modified with enthusiasm genes extracted from a spaniel. Yan wears a fleece and specs. There is one called Dallas who has unruly hair. And Liz is the woman. Together, their mission is to turn a family viewing slot into a half-hour science lesson.

There is more to it than that, of course. At its best, science programming excites and inspires. It gets people to ask questions about how the world works, and explains what goes wrong when we don't understand it properly. At its worst, science on TV is patronising, vague and needlessly exaggerated. For the best part, Bang Goes the Theory hits the mark about right.

Last week kicked off with Liz. She teamed up with Sarah Jacob from the forensic science service, for an episode of CSI: Lambeth, giving us a look at the forensic techniques that can be brought to bear at the scene of a burglary. Jumpers are brushed down for telltale glass fragments; broken windows are inspected for clothing fibres, which are then analysed using infrared light to determine their exact colouration; a shoeprint is run through the service's "Footwear Intelligence Technology", a database of trainer imprints. Their suspects are eliminated one by one. "It's a really, really good feeling when you're getting results, isn't it?" Liz observes. "Yes. It is," says Sarah.

Next up is Jem. He's had the bright idea of strapping a fire extinguisher to a homemade go-kart to see how fast he can go. After a quick demonstration involving a length of metal tubing and a brave parsnip, the proof of principle is clear: release the high pressure gas into the tube and you can generate an awful lot of thrust. So much so that his go-kart accelerates, over a few metres at least, faster than a Ferrari. The good part comes when Jem builds in second-stage thrust, achieved by diverting gas from the extinguisher into a tank of water. "The massively good news about this is that nobody died," he says, before taking to the racetrack and clocking up 43.1mph in his extinguisher-propelled vehicle.

Appropriately, Dallas demonstrates how oil is made over millions of years in the "geological kitchen" of the earth in a package that introduces, but understandably never gets to explore, concerns behind peak oil, the situation some experts foresee in the coming decade when demand outstrips supply. Yan, meanwhile, explains to people milling around a market why clouds are white by getting them to whip Marmite until it goes a sickly light brown colour. "What's that got to do with clouds?" asks a frizzy-haired lady. Here's what: whipping marmite fills it with tiny air bubbles that reflect light back into our eyes, whereas plain old marmite absorbs most of the colours of light that land on it. In clouds, tiny water droplets have the same effect, making them look white.

Science programmes in family viewing slots inevitably take on a feel of a science festival for children, with all the usual props of explosions, funny-coloured gloops and people in white coats – a rather tired formula, but that may be over-familiarity talking. I can't help feeling Bang Goes the Theory is geared more to boys than girls. There must be a better way, but for now, it is as good as it gets.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 22 Mar 2010 | 6:37 am

Where to take part in a 'bioblitz' | Juliette Jowit

Find out where and when you can get involved in a new campaign to create the largest record of Britain's wildlife

Bioblitz campaign calls on public to help detail Britain's flora and fauna

Biodiversity is a peculiarly difficult thing to write about: everybody knows it is important, but somehow the word makes it sound rather dull and worthy.

Several attempts have been made to get around this problem: the web of life, the variety of life on Earth, and so on. For its perfect simplicity my favourite so far is the UK website of this year's International Year of Biodiversity.

The phenomenon of bioblitzing - in which biologists and volunteers spend a few hours building up a rapid survey of an area's wildlife - should help a whole lot more. The word itself is dynamic (if a little frenetic perhaps), and the sincerity of the desire to get as many people as possible interested and involved cannot be doubted. You can read more about it in today's Guardian.

But if you'd like to get outside and do it, here is a list of the bioblitz events we know about:

• 22 March - Today is the launch of a public survey of invasive species is organised by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

• 21-23 May - The organisers of Bioblitz 2010 are beginning with the weekend of the official International Day for Biological Diversity with bioblitzesat Ashington in Northumberland, Blaise Castle Estate near Bristol, New Forest national park and Lepe Country Park in Hampshire, Cairngorns national park, and the Gower, near Swansea.

• 6-7 June - Westbury and Brighton

• 9-10 July - Lincolnshire

• 18 July - Nottingham

• Date TBC - Lancashire, London, Cambridge and Wrexham. They are hoping to recruit many more so keep an eye on the Bioblitz 2010 website.

Other events highlighted by the International Year of Biodiversity for the weekend of 22 May include: a biodiversity day for secondary teachers in the Oxford botanical garden, a butterfly surveying workshop at Brandon Marsh nature centre, Coventry, a biodiversity festival at the Natural History Museum, a bee identification day in Brighton and Hove and Le Havre in France, the launch of a national Big Bat map, and a "safari" in the Glencoe highlands of Scotland.

Opal, a programme of "open air laboratories" which is already attracting pupils from more than 1,000 schools and many more participants, has a national remit. It launched a three-month survey of the UK's 12 most common earthworms earlier in March, and will launch three more such schemes to study water - specifically ponds and lakes - in May, biodiversity in hedges in September, and climate change sometime next year. These, and a previous survey of air quality (by recording common lichens) last year, will remain open to sightings for some time after their official three-month periods.

If none of those suits you, check out these websites for information about how to organise your own bioblitz - and make sure you tell us what you're planning.

Happy hunting!

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 22 Mar 2010 | 6:19 am

Rarest sparrow nest sites found

New nesting sites of one of the world's rarest birds, the Worthen's sparrow, are found in Mexico.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Mar 2010 | 3:51 am

Hong Kong pollution hits new high

School children are kept indoors as Hong Kong's government says air pollution levels in the smog-hit city are at a record high.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 22 Mar 2010 | 3:39 am